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Biotech / Medical : Neuroscience

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To: tuck who wrote (269)	6/25/2004 12:15:09 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Read Replies (1) of 278

Study Shows Aricept(PFE) Isn't Cost Effective In Treating Alzheimer's Also See (Wilders' BioNews post) Message 20251683 By SCOTT HENSLEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL June 25, 2004 Pfizer Inc.'s Aricept drug isn't cost-effective in treating Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in The Lancet, a British medical journal. Researchers from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, studied Alzheimer's patients under care from doctors in their communities. Nearly 600 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's received long-term treatment with Aricept or a placebo. The researchers found that Aricept led to small but significant improvements of patients' performance in standard tests of mental function over the first two years of treatment. But the drug therapy didn't affect the likelihood of patients being placed in nursing homes or becoming disabled at three years. Aricept therapy costs $140 or more a month in the U.S. The potential for the drug to keep patients from being institutionalized is one rationale for its expense. Aricept was discovered by Eisai Co. of Japan and is co-marketed by Pfizer and Eisai in the U.S. The authors of the study cited an "absence of any significant delay of progress" in disability and "lack of any cost savings" in rejecting the hypothesis that Aricept saves the health system money. In a Lancet commentary on the Birmingham study, Lon Schneider from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, wrote that the results "are incompatible with many drug-company-sponsored observational studies and advertisements claiming remarkable effects for cholinesterase inhibitors." In particular, Dr. Schneider called "implausible" the claim that Aricept "stabilizes cognitive decline, or delays nursing-home placement by two to five years…" The study was funded by the U.K. government. Pfizer wasn't immediately available for comment. Write to Scott Hensley at scott.hensley@wsj.com

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